A hypertext document is one which is linked to other documents via hyperlinks. A hyperlink often appears in a hypertext document as highlighted text. The text is usually a word or phase, describing something for which a user might want further information. When the user activates the hyperlink, typically by clicking on it using a mouse, the screen presentation is changed so as to show the linked document, which typically contains more information on the highlighted word or phrase. Hyperlinks make it easy to follow cross-references between documents.
Hypermedia documents are hypertext documents with multimedia capabilities. The regions on the screen which include active hyperlinks are called hot-links.
Users are generally familiar with the application of hypertext by using a mouse to click on hot-links on computer displays of homepages from the World Wide Web (the "Web") on the Internet. Data on the Web is located via URLs, i.e., "Uniform Resource Locators." A URL is used to specify an object on the Internet. It specifies access method and the location of the file(s). Documents on the Web are written in a "markup language" called HTML, i.e., "Hypertext Markup Language". File formats of data on the Web are specified as MIME formats, i.e., "Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions."
Examples of file formats on the Web are ".au" (probably the most common audio format), ".html" (HTML files), ".jpg" (JPEG encoded images), ".mid" (Midi music format), ".mpg" (MPEG encoded video), and ".ps" (PostScript files).
Browsers are computer programs that make convenient the viewing and maneuvering of HTML documents on the Web. Presently, the two most popular browsers are Netscape's Navigator and Microsoft's Internet Explorer. They both provide a graphical user interface with standard point-and-click navigation methods and support HTML files.
Java is a programming language designed with the Internet in mind. Browsers which support Java can run Java applets, which are programs that can be downloaded from remote servers and run on the fly, without a-priori compilation or installation.
Hot objects in HTML files are each linked to a unique URL. Often it is desirable to have a hot object be linked to one of a plurality of URLs, the particular one depending upon the state of the Internet at the particular time that a user makes a request. For example, frequently, a user who desires to download a large file is given a choice of several URLs from which to obtain the file. This is accomplished by displaying a Web page which directs the viewer to download a program from one of four public sites (e.g., #1-#4). See FIG. 1 as a schematic example of such a Web page.
The reason for giving the user this choice is that the file provider expects its servers (those computers which house the URLs) to be very busy, and should one of them be too busy to service the request, the user can try another one. The user selects one and waits for a response. The user does not know if he/she made the best choice for the fastest delivery of the file.
Table 1 below gives the HTML source code for that portion of the web page of FIG. 1 which contains the heading plus the hotlinks for the four public sources. It can be seen that, except for the machine names (service2, service3, ism and service4) the URLs are identical.
TABLE 1 &lt;CENTER&gt;&lt;P&gt;&lt;B&gt;&lt;FONT SIZE=+1&gt;Download Netscape Navigator for OS/2 Warp Plug-in Programmer's Toolkit (123K)&lt;BR&gt; &lt;A HREF="ftp://service2.boulder.ibm.com/software/netscape/os2plug. exe"&gt;Public Site #1&lt;/A&gt; .perp-right. &lt;A HREF="ftp://service3.boulder.ibm.com/software/netscape/os2plug. exe"&gt;Public Site #2&lt;/A&gt; .perp-right. &lt;A HREF="ftp://ism.boulder.ibm.com/software/netscape/os2plug. exe"&gt;Public Site #3&lt;/A&gt; .perp-right. &lt;A HREF="ftp://service4.boulder.ibm.com/software/netscape/os2plug. exe"&gt;Public Site #4&lt;/A&gt; .perp-right. &lt;/FONT&gt;&lt;/B&gt;&lt;/P&gt;&lt;/CENTER&gt;
While such a Web page does provide the user with the option of choosing from among four public sites, it provides no information regarding the ability of any site to accommodate a user's information request, the delay the user will experience at each site before a response is dispatched, etc., etc. Nor is the system in any way set up to provide automatic and intelligent direction of the user's query to a public site in such a manner as to provide a most rapid response.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a browser with an ability to respond to a user query, by intelligently choosing from among a plurality of public sites which contain data requested by the query.
It is another object of the invention to provide a user with a displayed "hot" object which automatically direct the user's query to one of a plurality of URLs which can respond to the user's query, the choice being made based upon determined criteria.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a user with a displayed "hot" object which automatically direct the user's query to one of a plurality of URLs which can respond to the user's query, the choice being made based upon which URL can deliver a response file fastest.